This first day was supposed to be a simple straightforward one consisting of 3 flights over a period of 37 hours. This all changed after the first 3½ hours when in Sydney we were told that our flight to London via Dubai would be delayed 15 hours while they changed an engine. So instead of leaving Sydney at 4pm we were put up for the night to prepare for our flight at 7am the next morning.

It was our inaugural Airbus 380 flight and it has an engineering problem.

Sorry to our Sydney friends for not contacting you but we had to spend the rest of the afternoon and part of the evening at the airport trying to rebook our flight from London to Madrid and then also arranging accommodation at London Heathrow after we found we could not make a same day connection to Madrid. The Madrid flight was not on the same ticket as the Auckland/London ticket and was an el cheapo. Qantas, with the help of Oneworld, managed to secure a replacement at the same price. The hotel accommodation in London was not their responsibility so we will be hoping to recoup this cost from our travel insurance company upon our return home.

We set the alarm for 340am and hoped for a comfortable night.